Season 6 of Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defender left most of us wrecked, in the best way. After a major battle with Lotor, and a fight to reunite Shiro with, well, himself, it felt both like a victory and a defeat. But there’s hope going forward! And all of that was on everyone’s minds when we began the Voltron panel at Comic-Con. Executive producers Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, story editor Josh Hamilton, and stars Rhys Darby and Bex Taylor-Klaus broke down the end of season 6, and looked forward to season 7…including screening the first episode!

If you want to avoid spoilers of any kind, this is the time to turn away. I won’t spoil the episode, but there will be other things discussed. Fair warning.

The first thing to announce is that season 7 will drop to Netflix on Friday, August 10. Not only that, but they’re going back to 13 episodes per season, the way the first two seasons happened. So more Voltron in one go! We’ll also be getting another–and final–13 episodes before the end of the year. The last 26 episodes are on the way.

We also learned that Shiro will return, but maybe not as we knew him, and we definitely learn more about him before the series started, including a past relationship. The end of season 6 solidified the strong bond between Shiro and Keith, and we learned that that connection will continue, and even get a glimpse of why it’s as strong as it is. Keith and his mother Krolia spend a lot of time at Shiro’s bedside in the premiere episode.

As for the rest of the crew, with the Castleship gone–sacrificed to the Quintessence field during the battle with Lotor–the Lions have to do recharge before heading off to Earth, and that’s going to take a very long time. The premiere showed Coran’s plan to obtain a substance from a nearby planet that could help with power levels…but in typical Coran fashion, it goes hilariously off the rails. Rumelle and Hunk realize they’re kindred spirits while Lance, Allura, Pidge, and Coran try to solve the issue in micro…Yeah, they get shrunk and have to ride a weird beast called a Yelmore.

And we’ve buried the lead enough! Take an exclusive look at a trailer for season 7, not screened for Comic-Con patrons:

Hot dog! White-haired Shiro! Pidge calls herself Katie! And with Lotor and Zarkon both defeated, it looks like Sendak is leading what remains of the Galra Empire, filling the power void (as we assumed he would…he’s Sendak!) and probably out for revenge on the paladins of Voltron.

Easily the biggest takeaway from that trailer is something that was shown in the screened episode: a flashback depicting Shiro and his partner Adam. Mongtomery told the crowd that prior to the events of the series, and before Shiro went on the fateful mission to the moon, he and Adam were happy together, on the road to marriage, and were flight partners from back in the academy. But the call for duty proved to be too strong for Shiro to resist. How that will play into the series’ next 26 episodes is still to be seen.

The official logline for the season is as follows:
“After saving Shiro and defeating Lotor, the Paladins are finally able to set a course for Earth. After a long and perilous journey, they discover that their home planet is not how they left it.”

And finally! We are so happy to announce Form Podcast, the official Voltron commentary podcast. In each episode, I take listeners through an audio commentary of each episode of the series with producers, writers, directors, cast members, and tons of other people who work on the show to get to the bottom of how each episode was made. All you have to do is cue up the audio (we’ll help you with that in the episode) to the episode on your Netflix and you’re good to go!

Get the first episode of Form Podcast right now wherever you get podcasts and listen to Joaquim and Lauren chat with me about the 70-minute premiere episode “The Rise of Voltron,” with more episodes plopping every week! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes right here, on Google Play right here, and on Stitcher right here!

You won’t have to wait too long to get new Voltron, so hunker down; it’s going to be a craaaaaazy season. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Images: DreamWorks